I think I just gave myself a sinus rinse with my cup of coffee spitting it all over my keyboard while reading this article, by Kotaku writer Heather Alexandra calling Quake Champion’s Beta a “Bloody Disaster” Firstly, If you’re thinking about trying this game, please don’t take anything that Heather had to say in her article seriously. I have played the beta and I have had no issues finding matches at all, and I think this boils down to user related issues which isn’t surprising at all considering that it is Kotaku we are talking about here. She then continues to say the following: “The end result is chaos. Which would be fitting for Quake if not for the fact that it becomes increasingly difficult to have meaningful or interesting gun battles when everything devolves a bunch of speedy space marines running around like shotgun toting chickens with their heads cut off.”

Now I won’t question your gamer credibility since you are female and I am a straight white male which would inevitably lead to me being called out as some sexist basement dwelling neckbeard. But I have to question if you actually played a single game of Quake in your entire life? Or did you just forget? Heather seems to be confusing team-based shooters like Overwatch and Battlefield with Quake, and Quake is neither. Anyone who has played Quake for any period of time would understand the pure unbridled joy that is a Quake 2 railgun fight. Or the pure chaos that erupted when a player managed to pick up quad damage with a shotgun. If you had the pleasure of experiencing the above then you will know exactly what Quake is all about. Old school shooters like Quake requires fast reflexes and good spatial skills.

You need to be able to take out enemies efficiently because health is difficult to come by there and there is no health generation to fall back on. And having spent some time with Quake Champions gameplay-wise it is basically a perfect Quake game as far as I am concerned. I was a bit concerned that they were adding special abilities and character differences in the game. But these give you an extra tactical option that is moderately useful during a fight, but you can safely ignore these and still dominate in a match. She also says the following during the article: “For a game about champions, the majority are so forgettable that I don’t even know their names.” I will repeat this again for you Heather, this is not Overwatch, this is Quake.

[Editorial Note:] And here is my second nugget of wisdom I will be dispensing today: Heather Quake, by its nature and design, is nothing like a team based shooter. So don’t expect a team-based shooter, or criticize it for not being something you clearly want it to be.